Week 4 - Graduation

The final week at the AMFRE M&E training course was bitter sweet. We spent the week having some final wrap up lectures followed by only 2 days of compiling an evaluation report for our field work the previous week. By Thursday afternoon we were all unattentive and very tired. Nonetheless, the final report was submitted by me to AMREF on Thursday around 4:00pm; enough said!

On Friday morning we all gathered at AMREF for the graduation ceremony where we were presented with our certificates in M&E joined by the students of the Masters of Public Health and the Nursing students. This ceremony was special as it marked the 25th AMREF graduation. Between the 3 classes there were close to 200 graduates from across Africa, Europe (x3 people) and North America (just me!) with family members in the audience.

Me and my Tanzania flatmates; yes it was a coincidence!

Harriet (Uganda), Tayo (Nigeria), Jill (UK working in Liberia)

Jeff (Kenya), John (Tanzania)

Valerie (Switzerland), Jane (Kenya), Michael (Nigeria), Ruth (Kenya)

On Saturday after graduation I said a last farewell to all the wonderful people that I met, hoping that we will cross paths again in the future, and went back to pack my things. I fell asleep early on Friday as my journey home was to being with an 8am flight back to Zanzibar which meant that I had to wake up at 4:30am and be in a taxi to the airport by 5:30am. After 3 days of traveling, I have arrived safely in Toronto

• Saturday morning: Nairobi - Zanzibar
• Saturday afternoon: Zanzibar - Dar es Salaam
• Sunday evening: Dar es Salaam - Amsterdam
• Monday afternoon: Amsterdam - Toronto

The worst part of the journey was crossing the Atlantic Ocean for more than a few reasons:

1. The plane is always jam packed; thus, not conducive to sleeping
2. After 9 hours on a previous flight the movies are no longer new and interesting
3. Crossing multiple time zones is not fun ie: leaving Amsterdam at 2pm and arrive in Toronto at 4pm and it was definitely longer than a 2 hour flight!
4. Jet lag. Enough said.

So, now what? I am back in Toronto and already looking for my next flight back to Ghana in February, which I cannot wait for! I will be back working with YCI on a short term contract doing two different jobs. The first one will be for Program Development of the YMCA mentorship program that started in Koforidua. The YMCA wants to scale up this successful program to be initiated into YMCA's across the country. The second contract will be for M&E with YCI's other partner YES Ghana (Youth Empowerment Synergy). Throughout this contract, I will be working with YES in order to set up an M&E system to monitor and evaluate program implementation.

As for now, I plan to do a lot of visiting with family and friends before setting off again. I wish I could said I also plan to enjoy the weather but, lets be serious! What I really need to do is start planning my return to Canada for the summer time and not the winter.

Week 3 - Updates from the Field

Week 3 of my AMREF M&E course proved to be very long and tiring as it began with all 7 groups completing their evaluation tool in order to prepare for our field evaluation day at Saint John’s Community Centre (SJCC) on Tuesday. As promised, here are my reflections from the field evaluation in Pumwani District.

Outside the SJCC

Of course I knew the day wouldn’t run as smoothly as planned, especially when you try to mobilize 50 people. We were instructed to meet at AMREF by 8:30am and head to Pumwani by 9:00am, of course almost one hour later we actually left the training centre. We arrived at SJCC around 10:30am, disembarked the bus and were welcomed by the 2 staff members of SJCC and the participants whom we were to be conducting our evaluations with.

Our stellar bus! I was able to relax...because God was in control!

The SJCC project that we were evaluating was a child development program whereby satellite schools, home work clubs and talent clubs were established throughout the communities of Pumwani. The overall goal of the program is to improve the quality of life for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) by the end of 2011. The program is currently in its 3rd year of a 5 year program so our work was to be used as the midterm evaluation.

My group spent the previous week designing a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) tool in order to evaluate the Club Patrons whose main responsibility in the program is to ensure that children’s talents are nurtured in order to keep children off of the streets and in school longer. When we arrived at SJCC there were many Club Patrons available to join our FGD. However, since the structure of the day was unorganized and another group from class was supposed to conduct structured interviews with the same set of participants we kept losing participants for our FGD and ended up with only 4 when the recommend amount is between 6-12 participants. Nonetheless, we collected a lot of information from only a few participants but were unable to conduct a second FGD in order to compare the findings. The Club Patrons who were a part of our FGD were very forthcoming with our questions and as a group, we felt like we did learn a lot about the program. However, when all 7 groups discussed their findings on Wednesday we realized that there were some gaps in the information which has thus lead to challenges when analyzing the data and writing the report!  

FGD with direct beneficiaries of the SJCC program

So now you have all of this qualitative information and what do you do with it? As a class, we spent the remainder of the week learning how to analyze qualitative data which is not as easy as it sounds. Thankfully, for this session of the course we have a lively and very intelligent Kenyan facilitator who is Kikuyu and has a hard time differentiating between the letters “r” and “l” when he speaks ie: apparently cows chew “glass” not “grass”! On top of the fact that he is very knowledgeable, I get a kick out of listing to him speak which also holds my attention throughout 8 hours of class!

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As for this past weekend, on Saturday I had a fun filled day of analyzing our quantitative data in SPSS in class. It was a long and full day of staring at a computer and I had to leave around 4pm in order to have my afternoon siesta which turned into a 4 hour sleep on a counter of staying out too late the previous night...Oh Nairobi!

On Sunday I went to Hell’s Gate National Park with two girls from class and Mike and his friend. I have to say that being a Tanzanian/East African resident has come in rather handy in Kenya as I get a discount on all park entry fees which adds up to a lot of money if you have to pay the regular foreigner price...thanks TZ! Hell’s Gate, known for its hot springs was really cool. Our journey started out via a 10K bicycle ride from the entrance to Hell’s Gate Gorge where we hiked through the Gorge to see the hot springs. We intended to bike back to the main gate but daylight, pending rain and tiredness were not on our side. As much as we made fun of Mike for not biking and driving to the Gorge we ended up eating our words at the end of the day. Pole Mike!

Hell's Gate Gorge

View from the bottom

I was officially the dirtiest at the end of the day 

View from the top

Pondering life!

Week 2 - Sampling, Statistics and SPSS. Oh my!

Like most of my time on this continent, my time in Nairobi is flying by and in 2 weeks time I will be back home in Canada frantically visiting everyone I possible can while preparing for my second journey to Ghana in February! 

Last week we finished week 2 of the M&E course at AMREF and the topics covered were a definite learning experience for me. The week started by discussing types of sampling such as probability and non probability sampling which I am familiar with. However, by mid week we were recapping some statistics formulas and learning about the computer software program for data analysis SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Sciences)...both of which I had little to know prior knowledge on! Using SPSS to input data and create tables and graphs is very straight forward but when it comes time to analyze what the tables and graphs tell you, that's a different story! Wow, I was very lost when the facilitator started talking about standard deviation, sampling variance and the list goes on! Thankfully enough, there are people in the class who have studied statistics and are willing to give me a very quick crash course. 

The week ended by doing some group work to create qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools for when we go to the field to conduct an actual evaluation of a current project. I think this will be the most useful part of the course as it gives us a chance to analyze a project logframe, create an evaluation tool, undertake the evaluation, analyze the data and even write a final report for the partner organization. 

My group members and I creating our qualitative evaluation tool

AMREF's partner NGO for AMREF training courses is the St. John's Child Development Project and the project is based in an informal settlement in Nairobi called Pumwani. St. John's lets AMREF students come to practice their skills in return for AMREF students helping to achieve the objectives of the organization. In our case we will be conducting a mid term evaluation of the St. Johns Child Development Project and producing a full report for them in order to provide an analysis of the successes and challenges of the project implementation. 

Relaxing after a hard day in class!

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As for this past weekend, it was very busy but very fun. I feel like I never have enough time on the weekend because there is so much to do and see in and around Nairobi that I forget to just relax. However, there will be ample time for relaxing (aka hibernating) when I return to the cold Toronto weather. This past Sunday was especially busy...I woke up around 7am took a bus to the Nairobi National Park with one of the girls from class. We met up with some fellow Canadians that I know from my post graduate program at Humber College and we went on a 4 hour safari. Although I had went on a safari the previous weekend in Lake Nakuru, the unique aspect of the Nairobi National Park is that is literally in Nairobi city so when you are driving around looking at all the animals you also have an amazing view of the Nairobi sky line. This picture doesn't do it justice but to give you an idea....

After a successful safari (categorized as "successful" [by me] after seeing giraffes, zebras, and lions) I went straight into the city center to wonder around the Maasai Market to buy some (more) Christmas gifts that I am hoping will fit in my luggage somehow! After shopping, my friend from class and I were invited for a home cooked Nigerian dinner. A hand full of the people from class are from Nigeria and a few of them invited us for dinner to taste their local food which was so good and flavourful compared to the bland food of Tanzania. It was very delicious... Please help me think of an authentic "Canadian" dish that I can return the favour with! I never know what to say when people ask "what is Canadian food." Really, what is it?!

Jill and I enjoying some Nigerian home cooking!

Stay tuned for next week's AMREF edition -- Updates from the field!

The Center of East Africa!

Nairobi...where the magic happens! Living in Zanzibar, it is easy to get wrapped up in your own little world and I forgot how much I miss big cities.

Nairobi...or rather, what I have seen of it thus far is pretty alright! When I was in Kenya back in 2007 studying at Kenyatta University (KU) I didn't really get a chance to explore the city as I was ushered around, with 16 other University of Ottawa students, in a KU bus. We stayed on campus which was outside of the city centre and the trip into the city from KU with a car, during rush hour took about 1.5hrs (on a good day!) Without traffic the trip should only take about 20 minutes...that's how crazy traffic is in this city. The first thing I have learned is how to cross the street in Nairobi...first, you look both ways, then when you realize there won't EVER be a break in traffic, you just start walking and hope for the best. My trick has been to wait for someone else also crossing the road and follow their lead!

Nairobi, and its people have been treating me well. For starters I haven't been called "muzungu" once in one full week (not blatantly at least!). In Zanzibar that would never happen so it's very refreshing to be able to walk down the street in peace! Last Saturday when I arrived, I met up with an old friend from KU, he was studying at KU when my group was there and he was our "go to" person for anything we wanted to know or do! He's pretty much played that same role for me this time around as well...thanks Mike :) On Sunday we drove around the KU campus just to reminisce...I forgot how beautiful the campus is and there have been some major improvements including the construction of more than 6 new buildings including a massive library. We were nerdy enough to want to go into the library but they only allow access to current students so we had to convince security that we are alumni and just wanted to look around.

KU Post Modern Library

For those of you who don't know, my main purpose of coming back to Nairobi is to studying Monitoring and Evaluation at the AMREF International Training Centre. The course runs for 4 weeks after which time I can hopefully call my self a specialist in something, or at least on my way to becoming a specialist! 

The main entrance to the AMREF International Training Centre

The first week has been good even though we have just been reviewing the basic terms and concepts of M&E which can be a bit tedious if you already know these concepts! However, the really interesting part so far has been the group dynamics and group discussions.  

One of the facilitators: Dr. Frederick Chelule

I didn't know what to think of the make up of the group before I started. I mostly figured that it would be all men however, in a group of close to 50 participants the gender ratio is pretty much even. Even more interesting is the fact that there are people from all over the continent including 4 "muzung's" (myself, a girl from the UK working in Liberia with Merlin, a Swiss girl working in Switzerland with Medair and a Bulgarian guy). I'd say that half of the participants are Kenyan's and the others represent the following African countries:

• Tanzania
• Ethiopia
• Burundi
• Sudan
• South Sudan
• Uganda
• Liberia
• Nigeria
• The Gambia
• Cameroon

If you pull up a map of Africa, you can see how dynamic the group is and the experience is very rich. Most people are managers at NGOs or work in government institutions, some people already work in M&E and others want to be able to train people on M&E. The funniest thing is is that I moved from Tanzania and I am staying in a guest house with the two Tanzanian men along with the guy from Burundi...at least I get to keep practicing my Swahili! Speaking of which, when I attempt to speak Swahili here people look at me like I have two heads as the language is spoken far less here than in Tanzania. For example, students in Kenya are schooled in English right from the primary level where as in TZ they are schooled in Swahili until secondary school.

So, I think that's all for a first week recap. Stay tuned for the coming weeks!

The AMREF Training Campus

Reflections from Zanzibar

I can hardly believe that it has been a month and a half since my last blog entry, I feel as though I have accomplished a lot in a short time, including relocating to a different country (Kenya) to start a one month training course with AMREF (African Medical Research Foundation) in Monitoring and Evaluation as well as accepting an M&E position back in Ghana starting in February 2012!

Like the past 7 months, my last month in Zanzibar flew by. In early October I took a trip to Morogoro on the mainland to visit the two YCI interns that were based there working on environmental projects, including water, sanitation and hygiene projects in rural areas. In mid October, I traveled back to the mainland to Dar es Salaam to attend a CIDA intern networking event which was hosted by CIDA country representatives at the Canadian High Commission. This event was really beneficial for me as it happened at the very end of my YCI placement which gave me a good opportunity to actually sit down and reflect on what I have accomplished in the past 7 months. My presentation to CIDA and the other interns was based around "my accomplishments" which I summed up to 3 major achievements:

1. Working with the ZANGOC Executive Committee to complete a final draft of the new ZANGOC strategic plan.
2. Facilitating capacity building workshops on project design and proposal writing to 30 out of 45 ZANGOC member organizations (including travelling to Pemba Island to reach the 5 member organizations based there)
3. Working with YCI and ZANGOC to establish the ZANGOC Gender Equality Team and then providing the team with a basic gender awareness training session which included a guest facilitator from the Gender Unit of the Ministry of Social Welfare. I am also in the process of securing funds from the United Nations Population Fund in order to have the Gender Team trained by a Gender Consultant on auditing and mainstreaming.

After the Gender Awareness Training with the GET

My work contract with ZANGOC and YCI ended on October 21st after which time I was officially on vacation which included me going into the office to finish end term reports and various other tasks. Last week was also busy as I was packing and preparing for visitors and saying goodbye to my Zanzibar friends. I felt like I was finally ready to leave Zanzibar and it was nice to have such a wonderful send off last Friday. ZANGOC had invited me to the office for 4pm when I met with some members of the Executive Committee and Shaib, the YCI coordinator in Zanzibar. They presented me with a certificate showing the work I did and a few people said some words. Then I was asked to speak at which time I actually started crying even though I tried my hardest to hold it back! I think I blubbered something along the lines of how happy I am with the way my placement turned out and how much of a learned experience it was for me....blah blah blah, through the tears I don't really remember!

Me with some members of the ZANGOC Executive Committee

That evening I had one last amazing meal at the House of Spices in Zanzibar with the friends that were visiting along with some expat friends whom I will miss terribly. This was followed by some drinks and lots of dancing which made the night absolutely perfect and summed up the wonderful experience I had on the island for the past 7 months.

I intend to post an update this week about Nairobi city life and the AMREF M&E course, I just wanted them to be separate thoughts, separate blog posts.

ZANGOC Gender Equality Team (GET)

First let me refer you to Hyun Park’s blog about the establishment of the ZANGOC Gender Equality Team (GET) http://ycicanada.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/gender-equality-team-of-zangoc/. It brings me great pleasure to write this continuation blog because that means that there has been progress that needs to be shared.

In July, two scholarly YCI Youth Ambassadors, three committed individuals from ZANGOC member organizations and 1 dedicated YCI intern (that’s me!) came together to draft a proposal to the ZANGOC Executive Committee (EXCOM) about the rationale behind establishing a GET, the objectives of the GET and the structure of the GET consisting of 11 members: 3 people from the ZANGOC EXCOM, 7 people from ZANGOC-Unguja member organizations and 1 person from ZANGOC-Pemba member organizations.

The proposal was successfully approved by the EXCOM in mid July and we were given the go ahead to proceed with formation. At the end of July Mr. Mzee Ali Haji, the ZANGOC Executive Secretary, appointed a GET Coordinator from within the ZANGOC EXCOM, thus establishing the first official member. The GET Coordinator is Ziredi Abdul, she is fabulous and very committed to moving the GET forward.

When I came back from vacation the end of August, I was very surprised and extremely happy to hear what had been accomplished within the two and a half weeks that I was away:

• Ziredi and Shaib (the YCI Volunteer Manager in Zanzibar) met to discuss the recruitment process
• Letters were sent to all of the Unguja member organizations on August 23rd calling for applications. Applications deadline was August 27th. Fifteen applications were received.
• Pemba was informed about the GET and was asked to appoint a representative from one of the four members in Pemba.
• Ziredi and the Executive Secretary met to discuss who the remaining two GET members will be representing the ZANGOC EXCOM. 

I returned from vacation on Sunday August 28th and on Monday August 29th a team of four sat down and reviewed the fifteen Unguja resumes and shortlisted candidates based on gender experience, leadership experience, research and advocacy experience and experience in social justice issues. As a group we shortlisted ten applicants, needing only seven, and set interviews to take place on Friday September 2nd.

Before the interviews began, we created a score sheet in order to help make a final decision on the seven Unguja members. The decision on the seventh member was close but after some discussion amongst the four interviewers, we came to a decision on the final member, which I think was a good decision.  The interview process was very interesting for me, having never been the “interviewer.”

September 9th was the first official GET meeting with 10 members; the Pemba member was not present due to travel costs. However, we hope to be able to bring her to Unguja for gender training and GET meetings, on a quarterly basis. I feel that the meeting went well, even though there are still a lot of administrative kinks to be worked out but. A great discussion took place amongst members on how the team will operate and what kinds of activities are required in order for the GET to meet its objectives.

Only a few of the resources I was given from the Ministry

Yesterday afternoon, I had a productive meeting at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Youth, Women and Children Development. I met with the Gender Unit which is funded through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Within this Unit, I met with the Gender Program Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator who gave me some great tools on gender mainstreaming and guidelines on gender monitoring and evaluation. I was also given a contact to two gender companies in Dar es Salaam which the UNFPA hired to train the Gender Unit on auditing and mainstreaming. Either Ziredi or I will contact these companies to inquire about training rates because this is definitely the next important step for the GET if it intends to be a successful team, which I hope it will!

Zanzibar in Mourning

On the morning of Saturday September 10th I was laying in bed enjoying my late start to a relaxing day. At 9:30am I received a text message from the YCI Volunteer Coordinator here in Zanzibar notifying me that in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, a ferry carrying (what was then thought to be only 650) passengers capsized and sank en route to Pemba Island. The YCI Coordinator is originally from Pemba and if you recall my blog about my business trip to Pemba in July you will remember that he still has many relatives living in Pemba, of which some were on board the ferry.

At 9:30am on Saturday, the YCI Coordinator, along with thousands of other Zanzibari's stood waiting outside the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town while doctors read out the names of the survivors and posted lists on the walls. Unfortunately, this same mass of people were also waiting for the bodies of those found dead to be brought to the football fields near the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town for identification.

Crowds of people wait to identify their loved ones

Apparently, the original number of passengers on the ferry was said to be 650 as that is the maximum capacity of the ship. However, many families were returning to Pemba after celebrating school holidays on the mainland so I can only imagine how many bribes were paid at this point to ensure that everyone got a spot on the ship. This means that countless people were unregistered on the ships manifest, thereby making it that much more difficult to conduct a proper search and rescue.

The number of people found alive and the number of people found dead add up to more than 650 people meaning that the ship was terribly overcrowded with both passengers and cargo. Currently, there have been nearly 200 deceased found in the water through rescue searches or washed up on shore in Nungwi  (the northern tip of Zanzibar -- also a very popular tourist destination). The number of people found alive in the Indian Ocean, clinging to anything that floats, is currently at 606.

Authorities are concluding that the cause of the accident was engine failure due to overcrowding of a ship that was in poor condition to begin with. The ship set sail from Dar es Salaam in mainland Tanzania and stopped at Unguja Island (Zanzibar) to pick up more passengers and cargo before departing to Pemba Island. From what I have read online, it was at this stop that some passengers began to be worry about the state of the ship with so many people. Some people tried to exit the ship in Zanzibar out of fear but, apparently, the ladders were pulled up quickly leaving only a few people to exit the ferry in Zanzibar on a gut reaction.

Who is at fault? "Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, the island's minister of state, said that investigations are focused on why a ship licensed to carry 600 people was allegedly carrying more than 800" (The Telegraph).


Three days of mourning for the deceased and their families began on Sunday and fundraising efforts began today (Monday September 12th). Since many Zanzibari's have lost multiple relatives, including children, from this accident, fundraising efforts are going to provide emergency relief as well as support for families who cannot afford the cost of funeral services or to families who cannot afford to provide for relatives who have lost primary caregivers.


Please, if you have any contribution to make to this tragic accident (no matter how big or small), please visit the following website for more information on how you can help and how your donation will help those in mourning.

SAIDIA ZANZIBAR  --- Website for donations

In terms of the number of deceased this accident was fairly small unfortunately, not making many headlines and breaking news stories in international media. However, this disaster is greatly affecting the lives of countless people in Zanzibar. So please, make sure to "share" my blog on your facebook, twitter, or other social media sources in order to ensure the news of this accident is shared around the world. "Share" my blog by clicking the social media icons at the bottom of the blog.


Sources and Further Reading:


Daily News Online (Tanzania) - September 12, 2011
CNN - September 11, 2011
France 24 - September 11, 2011
The Citizen - September 12, 2011
Capital FM News (Kenya) - September 10, 2011
BBC World News - September 10, 2011

Vacation Part 4 - Namibia

Everywhere I go on this continent I am always amazed at the beauty I see, both in its physical landscape and in its people. It's no wonder that foreigners come to Africa, fall in love with its beauty and stay for years.

Namibia was amazing. In Swakopmound, Namibia on the coast of the country was the first time I saw sand dunes and I was absolutely blown away . The desert is the most amazing landscape I have ever seen, the rolling sand dunes seemed to go on for miles...and probably do! When the Intercape bus dropped me off in Swakopmund on a Saturday afternoon, I was taken aback by the lack of people and the general deserted feeling of the town. Swakopmound is a small German town with a population of only 42,000 and on the weekends the town basically shuts down so it wasn't until Monday that I actually got a feel of the city but on Sunday I had enough adrenaline filled activities to keep me busy...let me recap!

Sunday August 21

My day started early as I woke up ready to hit the slopes...I mean dunes! The previous day I had booked myself on an expedition to go sandboarding, an activity that kinda scared me considering I have only snowboarded twice in my life and that was many years ago! Of course it turned out to be an awesome activity and I had a really great instructor that was encouraging me to try bigger dunes as I got more comfortable directing myself on the board down the dunes. The only thing about boarding down bigger dunes is that you have to walk up the dunes to do it all over again which is not an easy task; its too bad they don't have chair lifts in the desert!  Nonetheless, I think this experience may have sparked my interest to take up snowboarding when I get back to Canada in December!

Waxing my board...getting ready to go fast!

Almost time for the first run...secretly scared at this moment

But it wasn't so bad at all!

Sandboarding lasted about 2.5 hrs after which time my guide took me to the beach and prepared a small lunch of cold cut sandwiches. After this I went back to my hostel and wasted no time jumping in the hot shower a) to warm up again [who ever claimed the desert is hot is lying!] and b) to wash off the sand that was literally everywhere!

After this I waited around the hostel for about an hour to be picked up in the Desert Explorers van to start my quad biking adventure which was such an amazing adventure! When I got there there were so many people and I wasn't sure if we'd all be going out together which would seriously hinder my chances of going fast! Fortunately, one of the guides said that as soon as we get out into the dunes they will split us up depending on who wants to go fast, medium, slow or very slow (thank god!). At first I think I accidentily went into the medium speed group but this turned out for the better. My guide ended up stopping us after about 15 minutes because there were people that were lagging behind in our group. He quickly took them out of our group to join the slow group and the remaining 3 of us went full throttle through the desert; up, down and around sand dunes...it was such an adrenaline rush, I didn't want it to end. At one stopping point my guide said to me "I love you on that quad bike!" My response: "me too!!"

Me and my Green Machine

Beautiful desert view

The full pack of bikers

Monday August 22

The previous day I decided I didn't get enough of the desert and on Monday I traveled out to Walvis Bay area which is close to Dune 7, the highest dune in the the coastal region at 130m. Naturally, I felt so inclined to climb to the top of Dune 7 which didn't take as long as I had anticipated when I was standing at the bottom looking up! Dune 7 was so steep that I was literally crawling up it with both legs and both arms in action. The hardest part about climbing up sand is that for every step you take the sand drags you down again so you are exerting more energy then usual. The view from the top was well worth it though.

Wednesday August 23

Since I hadn't spend much time in the town of Swakopmound, I planned to that that on Wednesday. However, at breakfast on Wednesday morning I met an American guy who was going quad biking and I was raving to him about how awesome it is. Somehow, he twisted my rubber arm and convinced me to go again. It really wasn't that hard to convince me since all day on Tuesday I was wishing I could relive my amazing day of sandboarding and quad biking that I experienced on Monday! It turned out that the second time around I had the same guide and he took us on a different route which including going to the very tip of some sand dunes and driving straight down them! What a great guide he was! And apparently, the same guide that took Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie out on their adventure when they were last in Namibia...pretty cool!

Thursday August 24

I headed back to Windhoek the morning of August 24 because my bus was scheduled to leave Windhoek to Johannesburg on Friday afternoon. I had been told to go to a place called Joe's Beerhouse in Windhoek because they have amazing game meet. I pictured it some what like "Carnivore" in Nairobi but Carnivore is still much more impressive. However, at Joe's I did have some amazing lamb shanks which was wayyyy too much food but so delicious!

At the end of the day, I will give the little that I saw of Namibia two thumbs WAYYYYY UP!

Vacation Part 3 - Buses and Borders

There is definitely something much more comforting about flying across borders than busing; I realized this after spending countless hours on a buses in Southern Africa and crossing borders overland 3 times. The first bus taken was from Cape Town to Windhoek (the capital of Namibia), the company was called Intercape and don't get me wrong, the bus itself was really nice. It was the Intercape "Sleepliner" meaning that is was a double decker bus, with a toilet, seats that reclined 150 degrees and extra leg room.

The problem came when we arrived to cross the South Africa border into Namibia around 8pm...the whole ordeal took around 2 hours.We all got off the bus with our passports and headed to immigration to get the stamp of approval to leave the country, that was the easy part. Then we were told that if we had any hand luggage on the bus to remove it to be inspected. So the 50 odd people on the bus all lined up outside in the cold while the immigration police stood on their platform looking down at us while rummaging through our hand luggage (insert security check at airports here!). I found the whole process to be rather invasive, especially when the lady opened every single sipper in my purse, pulling out tampons in front of everyone and asking, "what is this?" ... As if she didn't know!

After everyone had their hand luggage inspected they proceeded to open the cargo, pulled out everyone's suitcases and bags and rummaged through those as well. The only thing that was "confiscated" was someone's swiss army knife but I have a feeling that the immigration inspector was fascinated by it and wanted to keep it for himself. After about an hour of this process, I think the inspectors were getting lazy. My bag was in the back of the cargo so by the time it came out for inspection the lady just opened it and  had a quick feel for anything sharp.

Finally we boarded the bus again and drove to the Namibia side of the border and waiting in line again to hand in our arrival cards and get our passports stamped. Finally around 10pm we were all officially allowed into the country and heading to the capital, Windhoek; arrival time 7:00am

There was one other long bus ride and 2 other border crossings involved in my journey and this was on my trip back to South Africa -- Johannesburg, as that was where my flight back to Dar was departing from. This bus, unfortunately, wasn't a "Sleepliner" bus but just your regular single decker, toilet included "Greyhound" type of bus. Still much better than what you would expect to travel on in Africa! The bus departed Namibia at 3:00pm, crossed the border into Botswana sometime early in the evening then crossed from Botswana to South Africa the next morning around 8:00am. These 2 border crossings put together didn't even amount to the trouble we had the first time. Both of these crossing were very smooth sailing, thankfully!

I ended covering a lot of ground in Southern Africa....

Vacation Part 2 - Cape Town

Again, I must reiterate how much I appreciate that my friends are scattered around the world! My friend Katie from U of O is currently doing a CIDA IYIP internship in Cape Town and she graciously offered a roof over my head. The last time Katie and I saw each other was when we travelled to the East Coast a few summers back so upon my arrival in Cape Town on Saturday August 13th, we spent the afternoon catching up then went into town for an amazing sushi dinner and cocktails. Even though it was a Saturday night and people were in party mode, I just couldn't get it together! I was so tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the full day of travelling. We called it an early night on Saturday, especially since we planned to wake up early on Sunday and hike up Table Mountain.

Sunday August 14th


Table Mountain:
The plan was always to hike up the mountain but then take the cable car down, however the gale force winds that day put a damper on the cable car as it was closed. The hike up was fine, a little tougher than I had imagined as it was pretty steep and the step between rocks is very big which makes it even harder for someone with short legs! After 2.5hrs we made it to the top, the view was spectacular but it was so cold that we couldn't stay for that long. We walked around to see the different views and stopped for a quick snack then headed back down. Although the hike down was quicker, I think it was far more painful not to mention the much needed concentration to not slip on a rock and injure myself! Needless to say, 3 days later my legs are still in rough shape.

City Tour Bus:
After table mountain I met Sabrina in town and we hopped on the "Hop on Bus" which is a big red double decker sightseeing bus. The bus went all around the city including Sea Point and Camps Bay areas which are really posh neighbourhoods with amazing condos. I am wondering how one affords to purchase a condo in this area and how I can be one of these people!

This bus tour took up the remainder of the day and I returned to Katie's house around 6pm and stumbled in the house, took a nice hot shower and then we ordered delivery Thai food for dinner -- who knew this service existed in Africa!

Monday August 15th


Robben Island:
I took the morning ferry to Robben Island which I found to be a very interesting tour. The island itself is fairly large so when you first arrive you are told to get onto a bus which turned out to be incredibly full. The tour guide was awesome though and very knowledgeable about the island. So the bus takes you around the island four about 1 hr and the guide tells you about who has live on the island during different periods of time ie: pre prison days, prison days and post prison days. He tells you about escapee's and those who attempted to escape but were unsuccessful. The bus tour ends and you are then given a jail tour by a previous inmate of Robben Island who was held on the island for 5 years between 1985 to 1990. He took showed us Nelson Mandela's prison cell and the court yard where Mandela had his "leisure" time. The tour finishes by walking down the same road from the prison cells to the harbour that all the inmates took when they were released or when the prison closed in 1991. This walk is infamously known as "The Long Walk to Freedom" which is the title to Mandela's autobiography (which I highly recommend reading!)

Peninsula Bus Tour/Wine Tasting:
After the ferry returned to the waterfront I caught the second route of the big red sightseeing tour. This time the tour was going around the peninsula and to a vineyard called Groot Constantia. I ended up arriving at the vineyard around 2:15pm and the next tour of the cellar didn't start until 3:00pm, because I wanted to attempt to catch the 3:30pm bus back to town the fabulous staff at Groot Constantia arranged for me to do the wine tasting portion of the tour first so that I could join the tour then sneak off to catch the bus around 3:20. Normally on the tour the guest only get to try 3 selected wines and when you just do the wine tasting itself you get to personally select 5 wines from the list of 12 to taste. However, because I was the only person in the wine tasting area at the time, the lady let me try all 12 wines! There were 5 white wines and 6 red plus a port dessert wine that was fermented with brandy and so sweet. My favourite was the Merlot but they were all delicious. So I tasted a decent portion of each 12 wines from 2:30 to 3:00 then went on the cellar tour. Needless to say I was kind of tipsy by this point! The cellar tour was interesting, so interesting in fact that I didn't want to sneak off early to catch the 3:30 bus so I finished the tour which ended around 3:40, drank some more Merlot on the terrace and caught the 4:20 bus back to town...in a very happy state! What an amazing way to spend an afternoon! Highly recommend.

Tuesday August 16th


Simon's Town and African Penguins:
Simon's Town is about an hour south of Cape Town on the train, a very beautiful train ride along the coast. The main reason for going to Simon's Town was to see the African Penguins at Boulder's Beach! Seeing penguins has always been on my bucket list of things to do before I die! The African Penguin is much smaller than the Antarctic Penguin that most people picture when you talk about penguins. Around this time of year it is nesting season so there weren't so many penguins on the beach, they were mostly in the forest covered area nesting their eggs. Nevertheless, they were still so cute! There is a boardwalk through the forest which I walked along and saw many of the penguins lying down on their egg. Apparently the mother and father take turns nesting while the other one goes to eat then switch. I did see a baby penguin, you can tell because it is all furry and cuddly looking. I got a good video shot of a few penguins waddling on the beach which I will post later.

Since Simon's Town is a big fishing community, I treated myself to a nice plate of fish and chips then wandered around the shops in town for a little while then caught the 3:20pm train to head back to the city.

Wednesday August 17th


High Tea at the Mount Nelson:
This was such a relaxing experience! I arrived at this very posh and expensive hotel for my reservation at 10:30am and ended up staying until 1pm. I had a nice table on the terrace and just stat and read my book, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of tea! The first pot I had was an Earl Gray Blue tea and the second pot I had was a mix of berries, both were so delicious. I would highly recommend experiencing high tea at the Mount Nelson, it is a beautiful place and if you have a few hours to kill, it is a great place to take time for yourself and just relax.

Green Point Stadium:
In the evening I met up with Katie, Kelly and Emily and we went for nachos and beer near the Green Point Soccer Stadium (one of the many sites of the 2010 Fifa World Cup). I was definitely craving nachos because that's definitely something that I cannot get in Zanzibar! After we ate we headed over to the stadium to catch the soccer game. The stadium is amazing, both inside and out and although it wasn't overly crowded for the game we saw, I could still picture the masses of people flooding into the gates last year for world cup games. For the small amount of people that were there when I went, there was a lot of noise being made and I can't even imagine how loud the soccer fans made Cape Town just one year ago...wish I was there. But, I was happy to see the stadium and watch a game there.

Thursday August 18th


Today I plan on doing my own walking tour of the city plus some shopping at the Mr. Price so I can get some new (cheap) clothes to take back to Zanzibar! We have a nice dinner planned for this evening then it is time to say goodbye as I will be leaving Friday morning for my 30 hr bus ride to Namibia! Sand dunes here I come!

Vacation Part 1 - The Unexpected

Vacation in Cape Town is really awesome! Although it got off to a rocky and bumpy start (literally) when I took the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam on Thursday afternoon. I have taken the ferry many times before but this time was especially bad as I was sitting on the lower level right in the front. This meant that I could feel every single motion the boat made which was rough and add to that the people who were throwing up all around me. Not pleasant!

I arrived in Dar and paid the same amount for a taxi to Mikocheni in Dar as I did for my ferry ride to the city! In Mikocheni I was just supposed to be meeting up with my travel buddy and our YCI country manager for dinner then we were heading off to the airport to wait for our 2:30am flight to Johannesburg. All of this did happen, except the unexpected also happened. When we arrived at the airport at 1:00am we were expecting to be able to check in straight away but the security was closed...got a good sign when your flight is supposed to leave in an hour and a half! I went to the information stand and the lady there put me in contact with someone over the phone who told me that the Dar to Johannesburg route on British Airways stopped running in early July. Thanks British Airways for relaying that information to us!

Clearly we had no idea of this and since no one was in touch with us from British Airways or Kulula we also weren't aware that British Airways had rebooked us on a South African Airways flight leaving Dar at 6:45am (the same morning). Unaware of this rebooking, we headed back to Mikocheni at 2am and spent the night in Dar only to wake up early the next morning and head into the city centre to sort out the whole situation. It actually worked out easier than what I had imagined. We went into a British Airways office and they arranged for us to be on the next South African Airways flight to Johannesburg at 6:45am the following morning. They also rescheduled our Joburg to Cape Town flight. Unfortunately, they did not bump us up to first class for our "troubles."

So, after all of this, we finally arrived in Cape Town only 1 day behind schedule! What have I been up to since Saturday afternoon? Well, I have been experiencing some culture shock here that's for sure! Cape Town is not the "Africa" that I am used to, in fact I have a new take on K'Naan's phrase T.I.A (This is Africa). My new phrase for Cape Town is T.I.N.A - "This is NOT Africa."

Coming out of the Cape Town Airport Sabrina called me out on being overly excited about big city buses like those at home and not daladala's as well as the "Xelerator" hand dryers in the washrooms...you know, the ones that actually dry your hands! Yes, simple things make me happy!

My days have been jam packed with amazing sightseeing which I will blog about tomorrow, hopefully with some pictures added to it. I have 2 days left in this amazing city and since I have already done most of the tourist things I think I will spend my 2 days shopping and exploring the city.

ZANGOC Member Organizations - Part 2

This is the second installment of ZANGOC member organizations. For each NGO I have provided a brief description of the vision, mission and main objectives as well as contact details for the main contact person (including the email address of the NGO). 

Please note, that in order to contact any of ZANGOC's member organizations you can also contact the appropriate ZANGOC office via email and they can send your inquiry to the requested NGO.

ZANGOC Head Office

Location: Mwanakwerekwe, Zanzibar (Unguja Island)

Executive Secretary: Mr. Mzee Ali Haji

Email: zangoc29@yahoo.com

Telephone: +255 242 230 195

ZANGOC Sub Office

Location: Wete, Zanzibar (Pemba Island)

Assistant Project Coordinator: Mr. HassanKassim Maalim

Email: pbazangoc@yahoo.com

Telephone: +255 778 182 389

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 CHAKUWAZA - Chama Cha Kubendeleze Washairi Zanzibar (Organization for Advancement of Artists in Zanzibar)

Location: Unguja

 

About CHAKUWAZA:

This is an artists group that uses poetry to educate on development, culture, Kiswahili Language, national and international campaigns, environmental issues, human rights and health issues such as HIV and AIDS and STIs.

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Ms. Ashuu Omar

Telephone: +255 777 855000

Email: chakuwaza@yahoo.com

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JUVINZA – Jumuiya ya Watengenezaji Vikoi na Uzalishaji wa Nguo (Handloom Cloth and Clothing Association)

Location: Unguja

Vision: To have committed members who effectively fight for poverty reduction in Zanzibar.

Mission: To strengthen its members in terms of production management and financial management, and to share technology, experiences, and resources. JUVINZA will collaborate with other organizations for lobbying and advocacy for SME policy and related issues.

Achievements:

• Maximized labour force for both women and men by encouraging creativity, new initiatives, and using locally-produced and available materials; 
• Increased production groups 
• Training conducted on proper use of looming machines
• Increased production groups (making kikoi and dying/painting them) 

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Mr. Said Alawi

Telephone: +255 777 4711911

Email: juvinza@yahoo.com

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Kwahani - Kwahani Quality Youth Group

Location: Unguja

Vision: To sensitize all children and youth to understand their roles before society so that they may have unanimous decisions in lobbying and advocacy on their rights and interests.
Mission: To make all Zanzibar children and youth stable and gain independence in their affairs so as to avoid effects around them.

Main Objectives:

1. To impart awareness about children and youth policies and to implement its content and other policies to their interest and nation at large 
2. To support education and knowledge for the specific groups of children and youth aged 7 to 35 who are affected by the following: HIV/AIDS, disabilities, drugs/alcohol, street children, children who drop out of school, MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) and CSWs (Commercial Sex Workers) 
3. To reduce the number of children and youth who are facing difficult challenges in their lives 
4. To impart vocational training to youth in order to have a better life 
5. To create projects that may help development and reduce poverty amongst youth, children and their families 
6. To create awareness to youth about the importance of self employment and avoid depending only on government employment

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Ali Abdul
Telephone: +255 778 434 367
Email: kwahani1998@yahoo.com

 
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NOAC – Northern Pemba Organization for AIDS Control

Location: Pemba

Vision: To make a society which understands that HIV is not a dangerous disease and to decrease the transmission the virus

Mission: To fight against HIV and Malaria in Pemba

Main Objectives:

• To make people aware of the HIV problem
• To mobilize society to understand the importance of assisting people who live with HIV
• To bring VCT services closer to rural village areas
• To strengthen the VCT center
• To create a youth friendly center
• To assist with project management and follow up. 

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Juma Shaaban

Telephone: +255 777 511 512 

Email: pbazangoc@yahoo.com  (attention: NOAC)

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ODEYJO - Organization for the Development and Education of Young Journalists

Location: Unguja

Vision: To provide information through mass media and to visit different government institutions and make discussion though TVZ, STZ and Zanzibar Leo.

Mission: To build capacity un experience journalists so as to perform well in their daily activities

Main Objectives:

• To promote members educational and economical as well as employment
• To provide seminars and workshop
• To collaborate with mass media so as to provide good information to the public 

Achievements:

• 2002 - 15 people are employed to different institutions
• 2003 - Educated people through radio, television and news papers
• Visited government institutions
• Developed training given to youth
• Newsletter written for mental hospital
• Wrote articles for various newspapers 

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Suleiman Almas Kirmali

Telephone: +255 754 873 369  or +255 777 805 827

Email: biubwas@yahoo.com 

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PEYVO - Pemba Youth Voice Organization

Location: Pemba

Vision: A healthy community and healthy society engaged in socio-economic development

Mission: To support youth in the reduction of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. To promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) by awareness-raising, establishment of VCT, and supporting youth clubs on Pemba Island.

Main Objectives: 

• To provide education to youth on different diseases like infectious diseases
• To mobilize society to change their behaviour

Achievements: 

• Provided seminars to youth on HIV
• Provided seminars to youth on reproductive health
• Established youth societies

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Abdalla Omar Hassan

Telephone: +255 777 427 549

Email: aoli_f@yahoo.com or pbazangoc@yahoo.com  (ATTN: PEYVO)

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Tunduni - Umoja Wa Maendeleo Ya Shehia Ya Tunduni

Location: Unguja

Vision: To have development institutions and to reduce the number of uneducated and unemployed youth. Also, to have active professional people in Tunduni Shehia by 2015.

Mission: Bringing labour and manage development of Tunduni Shehia economically, socially health wise, culturally, educationally and environmentally

Main Objectives: 

• To manage pre education provision to children
• To manage educational development in general
• To manage rural development

Contact Details:

Main Contact: Mohammed Kassim Hassin

Telephone:  0777 470946

Email: tunduni@yahoo.com

ZANGOC Member Organizations Part 3 will follow soon